At the core of America’s history, in the armature of the collective social structure, are the issues of race and class. If the light is justice, liberty and opportunity, the shadow is race and class. Built as we were on slavery, a civil war, and failed reconstruction, the civil rights movement brought the conversation forward:…
Living in the wild with Trump voters I can assure you that _none_ of the Giuliani mayhem makes any difference to them. In fact, it serves a principal purpose: to put everything in terms of a partisan “witch hunt” that is nothing more than Clinton-like scandal contrived to defeat Trump. The key is there: to…
Trump lies, Guiliani rants, Hannity squirms, and poor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the pride of Ouachita Baptist University Ouachita Baptist University (2004), suffers the little children and the press because she finds out watching TV that everything she has been told is a lie. It’s a shame she didn’t come to that conclusion in the pews…
Every once in a while the NYTimes allows a columnist to use an unfamiliar word. Allow me. Today’s word is “priapic.” It was used today by the loathsome, not to be rehabilitated or forgiven Bret Stephens who supported the Iraq war, the Bush tax cuts, and every Ryan-esque effort to hurt ordinary people. He deserves…
It appears that I grew up a mere 22.7 miles from Donald Trump. Just two bridges and a stone’s throw. Apparently that made a difference. I’m sure there’s more: economics, upbringing, religion, all the rest. But let’s here take up that difference of circumstance and community. Here’s a formative fact to my upbringing: “In 1965,…
Today we learn of yet another chemical attack in Syria. There is no doubt that human beings are capable of incalculable evil. Such a fact drives those among us driven by conscience further into our inner conflicts. So a few words about America’s unresolved crimes and history, to give us pause as we think more…
I have argued before that we live in a post-factual society where only feelings really count. Until you need to get your computer or your cell phone to operate— but that too evokes plenty of feelings. What we are following of late is government by feeling alone, by puerile impulse, by emotions largely made of…
Earlier today I noted how my new Twitter Troll-Friends have twice (at least) made clear that the KKK was founded by Democrats. Are they ignoring every bit of history since Eisenhower, do they not know it, are they just in denial? Sigh. But as I think a bit more about it, the issue is not…
This past week I met an amiable enough older man— one can’t get that much older than I am and still be ambulatory, so the impression of him being “older” was more than chronologically determined— smartly dressed, white haired, bolo tied, big bucket belt, and cowboy boots, all he was missing was the hat, but…
This is about Rick Saccone’s election night observation about we on “the left,” why he’s not wrong about me, and why we can’t compromise. Are you up for it? Let’s start with the idea that America is built on the constructive fiction of its Dream. I say “constructive” because the ideal expressed, well, it wouldn’t…